By Chris Mincher
Of counsel, McAllister, DeTar, Showalter & Walker
It’s never a bad time for a little appellate reminder on how a local zoning authority should document a variance decision, especially when it also serves as the coda to the nine-year saga of the Wal-Mart Superstore in Clinton. For those who haven’t been tracking Grant v. County Council of Prince George’s County, here’s the gist: When the county established a new setback requirement, Wal-Mart was allowed to have its current setback grandfathered in, but when the company wanted to expand the whole building it needed to either comply with the new setback or a variance. Not surprisingly, Wal-Mart opted for the variance.
A bunch of procedural questions popped up along the way about the County’s use of staff attorneys, compliance with the Open Meetings Act, and relationship with its zoning hearing examiner, all of which the former Court of Appeals would love to tell you about in its 2019 opinion at 465 Md. 496. At the end of the day, however, the case returned to the County to fix how it evaluated the variance request. Other zoning authorities should pay attention so it can learn from those mistakes.
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